The School of Systems Engineering enhances the 'Reading Student Experience'

Tuesday, 29 June 2010

Students from the School of Systems Engineering prepare for work placement

With the cooperation of Cisco -  the world's number one networking company and CSC - a global leader in providing IT-enabled business solutions and services, the School set up exemplar modules to enhance their students' ‘real world ‘experience in two modules - part 3 Networking and Part 2 Software Engineering.   

Cisco provided guest lectures and donated equipment to allow students to practice and experiment with their newly acquired networking knowledge.  Working in groups, students acted as consultants with Cisco Managers as their ‘client' who posed as a University Board who was looking to upgrade their networking system.

The top four teams were asked to present to a joint Cisco and SSE board. Cisco were overwhelmed by the content, professionalism and confidence of the team presentations. After much deliberation a winning team was identified and Cisco awarded each team member a Multi-media Hub. Cisco felt that all the teams had done so well and awarded Flip video cameras to the members of the three runner up teams.    

CSC also acted as the customer and students, acted as software ‘consultants' producing a written tender document and giving a presentation.  The case study required teams of students to have face-to-face meetings with their customer, and participate in teleconference meetings with them.  The top two teams were invited to CSC's UK Head Office in Aldershot where they were asked to deliver their presentation to a panel of Senior Managers. The feedback from CSC was extremely positive and both teams were treated to lunch and given £100 worth of Virgin Experience  day vouchers to spend on an activity of their choice.

Both of the initiatives grew out of the School's Industrial Placement programme which this year will see students working for companies such as BAE Systems, Bank of America, Clearswift, Cognito, Eli Lilly, GlaxoSmithKline, HSBC, IBM, Intel, Logica, Microsoft, PepsiCo, PriceWaterhouseCoopers, Research in Motion and Williams F1. 

The success of the pilots was a win-win for all concerned:

• - The students gained real-life and relevant experience on how to apply their degree, they developed their soft skills, gained an insight into what an employer is looking for, and what it would be like working in industry.
• - CSC and Cisco developed their relationship with the University, gained exposure to next year's graduates and helped to insure a stream of potential employees that have both technical and business skills.
• - The School had the opportunity to validate the commercial viability of its modules, increased the success and employability of its students, and further developed relationships with industry.

Both CSC and Cisco have asked to work with the University again on the modules next year in addition to supporting School Open days,  Career Management Skills and  student mentoring.  SSE is currently in discussion with other companies eager to support the School in enhancing the students learning experience while at Reading.